April 4th, 2009 marked Toronto FC’s home opener. After heading down to Columbus the week before to witness (at least when the view of the pitch wasn’t obscured by smoke bombs) Toronto’s 1-1 tie with a tough Columbus on their home turf, I had some pretty high performance expectations from Toronto on Saturday. Seattle came galavanting into Toronto with a perfect record, strong home support and 180 minutes of shutout football behind them. In short, they had everything to prove to the first crown jewel of the MLS, Toronto.

Before the game yesterday, I had suspicions that Seattle was the real deal. At full time I knew they were the real deal.

Getting to see Freddie Ljungberg was a treat. The man’s still got the ability to make the plays and lead a team. He was untouchable throughout the most game setting up chance and chance, frustrating Toronto’s defense and ultimately leading The Sounders to a 2-0 win.

Toronto, on the otherhand, was a whole other story. I can’t blame the wind because both teams had to play with and against it. The fans were as loud as ever and the team had a full week to recover from their last game. Saturday’s performance was akin to the whole team waking up late from a night of binge drinking the night before. It wasn’t until the 69th minute when Jim Brennan made an excellent cross to Amado Guevera that the team woke up and started to put up a fight against Seattle. Unfortunately, by that time in the game, it was too little too late as coming back from a two goal deficit with 20 minutes to play is a specialty reserved for teams the calibre of Liverpool and Manchester United.

I’m not sure why John Carver took so long to remove an invisible Chad Barrett from the game. Replacing hime with Danny Dichio was a wise move and should have been done much, much earlier in the game. Barrett couldn’t get anything going on Saturday and should have been yanked in the first 20 minutes. Dichio’s impact on the field, however, was immediate. He was able to get the ball to his team mates and generate chances for the team time and time again in the second half, even setting up a goal that was called back. Overall, the last 35 minutes of the match were much better for Toronto. There’s no reason the last third of the game couldn’t have been applied to the first two thirds of game.

To sum up my feelings, here are my highlights and low lights from the game:

Let’s hope the team rebounds next Saturday against FC Dallas. I need some goals in real life!